EPPERSON'S FERRY

Trammel's Trace rut leading to the Sulphur River and the site of Epperson's Ferry. Photograph by Gary L. Pinkerson (www.trammelstrace.org).

EPPERSON'S FERRY. During its first session the First Congress of the Republic of Texas offered half a league of land to anyone who would operate a ferry across the Sulphur River. By April 1837 Mark Epperson had built a ferry on Trammel's Trace in Bowie County, almost due south of the location of present-day New Boston. Congress granted Epperson the half league, and the ferry was soon widely known as Epperson's Ferry. In December 1837 the legislature instructed the postmaster general to institute mail service from Nacogdoches to Epperson's Ferry, and from there to the county seat of Red River County. Although little is known about it, a small settlement apparently developed around the ferry in the early 1840s, which served as a gathering place for area settlers. The ferry was eventually replaced by a wooden bridge, and then by a bridge of more modern construction in 1924. In 1936 the Texas Centennial Commission erected a marker at the site of the old ferry.

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